Billene Seyoum Woldeyes (Amharic: ቢለኔ ሥዩም ወልደየስ; born 1982) is an Ethiopian politician, poet and author who is serving as the Foreign Press Secretary for the Office of Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 5 November 2018.
[4] In her book, Billene writes about this multinational upbringing, "I have spent half of my life outside of my birth country Ethiopia.
[6] In 2011, Billene co-formed a spoken-word poetry collective called Zemneged-Andinet (meaning, "from a place of unity" in Amharic).
Billene has stated that it consisted of "both English and Amharic writing poets who believe in words as a medium of artistic expression."
Since 2010, she has published with multiple newsletters, including Pambazuka News, on topics that concern the rights of women and girls.
[14][15] Multiple platforms have noted Billene's preference for not being addressed with the title Weizero or Weizerit (roughly translated to Mrs. or Miss.).
Nigussu Tilahun did join the secretariat as press secretary, but to aid with the Amharic section.
[17] She is an author of multiple poems including Things I Imagine Telling My Daughter, Make It Happen, From Foetus to Woman and others.